South Carolina Auditor General Richard Eckstrom holds up a book he wants to present to his new chief of staff James Holly during his presentation at a meeting on August 13, 2009, in Columbia, SC Eckstrom will be resigning following the case $3.5 billion worth of accounting errors.
Mary Ann Chastain/AP
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Mary Ann Chastain/AP
South Carolina Auditor General Richard Eckstrom holds up a book he wants to present to his new chief of staff James Holly during his presentation at a meeting on August 13, 2009, in Columbia, SC Eckstrom will be resigning following the case $3.5 billion worth of accounting errors.
Mary Ann Chastain/AP
COLUMBIA, SC – South Carolina’s troubled top accountant will resign next month $3.5 billion error in the year-end financial statements he oversees, according to a resignation letter written on Thursday obtained by the Associated Press.
Republican Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom’s decision to leave the post he held for 20 years came after close scrutiny of his record following the blunder and amid a growing number of calls for him to resign or be sacked.
The Senate panel investigating financial malpractice issued a damning report last week accusing Eckstrom of “intentional neglect of duty”. However, as recently as last week, Eckstrom said he would not resign.
“I have never taken lightly serving the state I love or the work for which I was elected, trying to work with my colleagues… ,” Eckstrom wrote in a letter to the Governor of South. Carolina Henry McMaster “They deserve no less.”
The governor accepted his resignation, effective April 30.
The Senate report concluded that Eckstrom was solely responsible for the mapping error, which occurred during the state’s transition to the new internal information system between 2011 and 2017. State officials had testified that Eckstrom ignored the auditor’s yearlong warnings about “serious weakness” in his office and flawed cash statements.
Eckstrom said the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report overstated the state’s cash balance for a decade by double the amount sent to colleges and universities. The mistake remains unresolved until a junior employee corrects it this fall.
Officials have said that the exaggeration does not affect the state budget. But lawmakers worried by Eckstrom’s inconsistent testimony have criticized his failure to fulfill one of his main constitutional duties: to publish an accurate account of state finances.
The collapse could lead to other changes for the controller’s office
Consequences for public authorities that are often under the supervision of the system are expected to continue. A Senate subcommittee recently passed a joint resolution allowing voters to decide whether the governor general should continue to hold an elected or governor-appointed office. Eckstrom reiterated his support for that change on Thursday in his resignation letter.
The next General Control could also lead a much weaker agency. The investigating agency proposes to transfer responsibility to one or more agencies. State Treasurer Curtis Loftis, a Republican-elect, testified that his office could take on key duties.
Republican Senator Larry Grooms, who is leading the investigation, said the office of the inspector general could also be “removed entirely.”
The groomsmen thanked Eckstrom for doing “the honorable thing” and not letting the General Assembly use a confusing clause in the state constitution to remove him from office.
Between the 104-7 House vote to cut the inspector general’s annual salary to $1 and the Senate’s scheduled April 11 vote to oust Eckstrom, Grooms assumed that the growing heat had become too intense for him to continue working.
State Senate to choose Eckstrom’s replacement
The Senate must now choose a replacement to serve out Eckstrom’s remaining term, which ends in 2027. The grooms said the next general control must be someone who realizes that their job is to spend the next three years. to oversee the merger of offices into other state agencies. He didn’t anticipate any other heads would roll.
“The bucket stopped with him,” Grooms said. “The responsibility is on him.”
A certified public accountant, Eckstrom, 74, spent four years as state treasurer before taking up his current position. He ran without a candidate in the past two elections and last faced a major Republican opponent in 2010.
McMaster – who has opposed calls for impeachment and endorsed elections as an appropriate means of accountability – thanked Eckstrom for his 24 years of “dedicated service”. The governor previously served as the state attorney general along with Eckstrom at the beginning of the constituency’s term.
“The Eckstrom and McMaster family have been close friends for decades,” McMaster said Thursday in a letter accepting his resignation. “I know that your every wish has been and will always be for the prosperity and happiness of the people of South Carolina.”
